The Peabody Awards

Slavery

Officially, slavery is banned in all countries, yet today an estimated 27 million people are virtually enslaved-people paid no money, locked away and controlled by violence. In this shocking documentary, the tortured slaves share their stories. Peabody Award-wining producers Kate Blewett and Brian Woods (1995’s The Dying Rooms) interview parents in India whose young son has been kidnapped and forced to work 20-hour days on a carpet-weaving loom for no pay. In the Ivory Coast the filmmakers talk to newly rescued cocoa plantation slaves and later to their candid owner, who each relay contradictory versions of a story about a brutally beaten man. But the most disturbing segments takes place in an unlikely setting, the Washington D.C. suburbs, where individuals from third world countries are put into service against their will. With executive producer Grant McKee, Ms. Blewett and Mr. Woods take viewers on a devastatingly painful passage through the many faces of slavery today as victims share their tales of woe, of being controlled by fear and violence, and of working countless hours without compensation. For this powerful revelation about the cruel, inexcusable practice of modern slavery found in all levels of society, a Peabody Award goes to Slavery.